The Growth of Algae When Exposed to Oil and Food Waste

Abstract

Today, polluted water is the main cause of mortality of aquatic organisms in our water systems (Smith 2009). In this experiment we wanted to test the decrease of algae growth when additional contaminants are added to the water. We compared the growth rate of algae when placed in different concentrations of contaminated water samples. We counted the initial cell growth of our uncontaminated water, as well as when waste were added. We hypothesize that if we increase the amount of contaminants, it will cause a decrease in algae growth. Our results showed that our control group contained the most algae. From our data we can infer that our hypothesis was supported. Our contaminants caused a mold bloom, which resulted in a decrease of algae present in one of our experimental water samples.